Generations: Genesis
by Master of Water
Summary: In what probably isn't an accident, three teens on a day out end up in an underground cavern. With old friends and new enemies abound, can they unravel why they're there and how to get out?
1. GE000 Surface Exploration

So, um... hi. First off, a bit of background: I uploaded this chapter first on January 4, 2007. This new version, along with chapter one, is going up on August 31, 2009. It's a big gap, considering that when I released the prologue I intended to have the first chapter up within a week. But anyway, for the few of you who may have read the original version of this, in the time since then the plans for the series have changed dramatically, and this revised chapter comes as the result of a session rewrite over lunch whilst also watching NCIS.

The obligatory story-wide disclaimer: stuff: I do not own any of the rights to Pokemon; as far as I'm concerned the characters own themselves. I also do not own the rights to any of the songs for which I have modified/translated lyrics. This is a work of fiction; any resemblance to real people alive or dead is purely coincidental except where intended.

GENERATIONS  
GENESIS  
Prologue: Surface Exploration  
"GE000"

All stories have to start somewhere. Most of them start somewhere in one of the many known regions, or perhaps those unknown. But at least they all begin.

This story doesn't.

This story didn't start on a stormy night in one of the districts of the metropolis of Jade city, in a bedroom... on a computer monitor...

* * *

DAVE THE RAVE WRITES:  
So, how about it?

MEG WRITES:  
I've already said no, and you can't change my mind.

DAVE THE RAVE WRITES:  
It's only a little trip. This place isn't exactly open every day of the year.

MEG WRITES:  
It's underground.

DAVE THE RAVE WRITES:  
Yeah. So?

MEG WRITES:  
The Subterra is about as far down as I've been, any deeper and I'll be worrying really badly.

DAVE THE RAVE WRITES:  
What's to worry?

MEG WRITES:  
Mild claustrophobia combined with an incident that happened a few years ago.

DAVE THE RAVE WRITES:  
Elaborate?

MEG WRITES:  
No.

DAVE THE RAVE WRITES:  
Come on. It'll be fun. Darrell's coming. Nothing's going to happen.

MEG WRITES:  
Still can't convince me.

DAVE THE RAVE WRITES:  
Afterwards I can procure some tickets to go see _Temple of the Sea_...

MEG WRITES:  
...

DAVE THE RAVE WRITES:  
Got you there, eh?

MEG WRITES:  
...

MEG WRITES:  
...alright. As long as that holds true. I haven't seen that yet.

DAVE THE RAVE WRITES:  
:)

DAVE THE RAVE WRITES:  
Ok, tomorrow at 9. See you at the station.

MEG HAS LEFT THE CONVERSATION (Feel the wind beneath my wings once more)

DAVE THE RAVE WRITES:  
And don't be late!

DAVE THE RAVE WRITES:  
Somehow I knew that was going to happen.

DAVE THE RAVE has gone AFK

SERVER WRITES:  
All is silent... (Automatic 5 minute silence message, you may turn this feature off)

REACTOR WRITES:  
They come.

REACTOR HAS LEFT THE CONVERSATION (Somewhere in the sands of time)

ALL USERS OFFLINE OR AFK

TIMESTAMP NOTED: THURSDAY 14 FEBRUARY 2008 21:43

* * *

It was not a very busy morning at Hyrntown Jade Rail and Subterra station. Being a weekend, not many people were traveling in to work. The rain from the previous night left puddles scattered around, dripping off the roof. Various flying Pokemon sat underneath overhangs in attempts to stay dry. It was the sort of morning you'd just like to sit down in front of a warm fire with a mug of something.

It had been some time since the last train, and David, sat on a bench on one of the platforms, watched an agitated businessman who was obviously late on the platform opposite. In the middle distance there was the electric whine of trains arriving and departing on the Subterra lines below. He checked his watch, then looked up at the information board.

"08:53," it proclaimed, "Next train: SPECIAL to Hyrn Hill Mine, 09:00."

"Seven minutes..." he muttered to himself, pushing his glasses back up his nose. "If they don't turn up, I'm going without them."

From the back of the bench to his right, his Butterfree, Viridian, protested loudly. David rubbed her head.

"Calm down, it's not like anything's going to happen."

"Who are you talking to?"

David looked around.

"Oh, just Viridian, Darrell. She doesn't seem to like the idea of going without you and Megan."

Viridian squeaked in confirmation, as Darrell walked past them and sat on Viridian's other side. "Well, you and I both know how much she loves those little treats Megan gets for her Weavile," he pointed out.

Across from them, another train noisily pulled into platform one, and several passengers disembarked, two boys having an extremely loud conversation. David sighed.

"Five minutes."

Standing up, he looked down the track towards central Jade, and squinted. "Train's coming," he reported. Darrell stood up beside him, and Viridian fluttered onto David's head. Sure enough, the train was approaching.

"It's still got a couple minutes before it leaves," said Darrell, looking up at the board. "Megan can still get here in time."

The train rushed into the platform, blowing David's hair about, and a discarded newspaper blew down towards the other end of the platform. Viridian clung on for dear life. Within a matter of moments, though, it had come to a stop, and the doors had opened. A few passengers got out, and as one of them walked past, a snatch of music floated away from her earphone. _"...and to a new __frontier..."_ Both of the boys looked down the platform for a few seconds.

"We're going," David said, climbing onto the train. Darrell took one last glance at the station building, then resigned to the fact that Megan wasn't coming with them after all. He followed David to four seats around a table, moved the muddy comic that was sitting on one of the seats, and sat down.

David looked up in annoyance. "Great," he complained, "I think Viridian's tangled in my hair." Viridian gave a worried squeak to confirm this, and started tugging. The PA bonged.

"Please stand clear of the doors."

Abruptly, there was a yell, and someone threw themselves onto the train. The doors stopped and reopened, and the PA bonged again. "To all passengers, this means you on the floor of carriage three, 'Please stand clear of the doors' means 'Stand clear of the doors', not 'Throw yourself onto the train like an idiot on Paras shrooms. Now, let's try again, shall we? Please stand clear of the doors."

The doors closed with a satisfying thunk. David glanced outside and saw someone else run into the now closed doors, curse, and walk back.

"Thank you."

As they leaned out of their seats to look who'd landed roughly, Viridian seemed to already know who it was, and with one final tug freed herself from David's hair and went over to meet her.

"Megan?!" Darrell exclaimed, leaning out further. Megan brushed herself off and sat opposite them, trying to get her breath back. David waited until she caught it, then asked the obvious.

"Why are you late?"

He received a glare for his troubles. "Nice to see you too," Megan replied. "Twix stole my bag and it took me ages to find it."

Twix was Megan's family's hyperactive Furret, infamous for stealing and hiding things where they weren't expected. PokeNavs in lightbulb sockets, books in the toaster, not to mention several writing implements and Megan's keys had been found under the rug in the living room. It was a good enough excuse. But the bag, the boys noticed, was bulging.

"What exactly is in that bag?" Darrell asked. Megan blinked, then started taking things out of it. There was a lot, and pretty quickly the table was buried.

"Pokenav, Pokegear, three flashlights, first aid kit..."

She rambled on for a while.

"...some chocolate, a small cake that mum made me bring, and my gloves."

As she packed everything back in, the others stared, apart from Viridian, who took an interest in the cake.

"Megan, I said nothing was going to happen!" exclaimed David, raising his hands in annoyance. "All of this stuff is just going to weigh you down, not to mention cause havoc with security!"

Megan pried the cake box from Viridian's grip. "No harm in being careful."

"There's such a thing as being too careful."

Zipping up her bag, Megan looked at Darrell.

"It's underground. Anything could happen."

* * *

Anything indeed. Back in David's bedroom, the chatroom lay abandoned on his computer monitor, which he'd neglected to turn off. Nothing had happened for about eight minutes, but then a message appeared on the screen, reading 'Switching Channel'. When that message disappeared, there were lines of text appearing in the chatroom, despite it being a private one and the fact there were no other channels to it.

REACTOR WRITES:  
I trust everything is ready for the events to come?

MAZE WRITES:  
Cable cutters in position.

POWER WRITES:  
Tunnel supports weakened.

REACTOR WRITES:  
Good. Volcano?

VOLCANO WRITES:  
Lava will be rechanneled in three.

REACTOR WRITES:  
Excellent. Get ready, Maze, it's going to get very hot in there very soon.

MAZE WRITES:  
Oh joy.

MANSION WRITES:  
...

REACTOR WRITES:  
Oh, for the love of Mew, I thought we'd gone through this!

MANSION WRITES:  
...

MANSION HAS LEFT THE CONVERSATION (I only stop at exits)

REACTOR WRITES:  
I'm not even going to try.

POWER WRITES:  
They should be reaching the mine any moment now.

REACTOR WRITES:  
Let's go to work, boys. Maze, you're up.

MAZE has changed name to MAZE (BUSY) (Lost in a labyrinth)

REACTOR WRITES:  
And don't screw it up!

REACTOR WRITES:  
...damn.

REACTOR WRITES:  
Anyone know how to turn those messages off?

REACTOR WRITES:  
Those jingles are on my nerves.

* * *

As true to Power's statement, at that precise moment the train pulled into the platform at Hyrn Hill Mine. The doors opened and amongst the tourists, David, Darrell and Megan walked out. They followed the throng of people towards the main entrance, got in past the queue thanks to David's foresight and prebought tickets, waited for about ten minutes at security while they checked Megan's bag, and walked towards the elevators.

"According to the guidebook," Darrell explained, "There's a main exhibition on the fifth floor down, then showcases on three and four."

"How deep is that?" asked Megan nervously.

"Oh, a good-" started Darrell, but David interrupted him.

"Megan, how many times do we have to tell you? Nothing's going to happen!" he told her. "We only just got past security because of your bulging bag!"

Megan remained resolute. "You can _never _be too careful." Viridian squeaked in agreement.

They made it down onto the fifth floor, dragging Megan on the elevator after much protesting.

"This place is huge..." Darrell gaped as they exited the elevator. David grabbed the guidebook off him and flicked past a few pages.

"'The first four lower levels are mostly extraction machines, furnaces, equipment storage rooms and other compartments for various activities such as mess halls and the like,'" he read from it. "The fifth level is where mine cars would return from the network of tunnels loaded with the coal that had been mined.'"

He skipped a few pages.

"'Upon reaching the fifth level, the large chamber you see is the result of increasing need for mine cart sidings as the network of tunnels increased.'"

He looked up, and realized the other two had wandered off and were nowhere to be seen. He sagged momentarily, then decided to take a tour with a guide into one of the remaining mine cart tunnels. Viridian shook her head and followed him.

"I hope the tunnels are structurally sound," he remarked to a kid on the tour. The kid glared at him.

"I mean, we don't want them collapsing on us, do we?" David joked. The kid continued to glare, then broke it off to listen to what the guide was saying about loading carts.

About ten minutes later, he and the rest of the group emerged from the tunnel covered in a fine layer of dust, because somebody had lifted a sack, then dropped it again, throwing dust everywhere. David had done his best to brush it off, but had only succeeded in getting it over his hands. Viridian had laughed, until the person did it again and she got caught in the blast.

"You look like you've been submerged in a pool of grey," somebody commented loudly, and he found it was Megan from some distance away, looking at something on the floor.

"That would about be the thick of it, yeah," David replied, attempting again to brush it off and failing miserably. "Whatcha looking at?"

Megan looked up. "There's this circular symbol on the floor," she pointed out, crouching down to it. "Is there anything about it in the guidebook?

David pulled it out of his pocket and flicked through it. "Nope, nothing."

It was an intriguing symbol, two concentric circles with smaller symbols in between them. Megan gingerly poked one of them. It seemed to glow briefly before going out, and there was a similar result from another, which brought raised eyebrows to both Megan and David.

"Sir," came a loud, insistent voice from across the hall, "please desist immediately."

They both stood up and turned around to find the origin of the voice, and groaned. Darrell was sat inside the control chamber of a piece of drilling equipment on the far side of the hall, with a guide trying to get him off. How he had managed to get on there nobody knew, but everybody knew what happened next when he turned it on. The roar filled the chamber, making everyone cover their ears and those closest to the drill go temporarily deaf, bar Darrell in the sound-proofed control chamber. When he finally turned it off again, Darrell was manhandled off the drill by security.

"He's on tickets bought by me, I'll need to go talk to them," David complained, walking towards them.

The subsequent argument resulted in Darrell being cautioned and forbidden to touch anything else, and David being instructed to keep Darrell in his sight at all times. The next argument, between David and Darrell, passed over after Megan pulled the guidebook out of David's pocket and hit them both with it.

It was a few hours before David finally declared they needed to leave for the movie. They boarded the elevator, David pushed the button for ground (after pushing Darrell's hand away), and turned to Megan.

"See, nothing happened."

As if on cue, the elevator jerked to a stop, throwing them to the floor. The light went out, but was quickly replaced by an emergency blue one.

"You had to open your big mouth," Darrell moaned, ignoring David and punching the emergency door release button. It didn't work.

"It's not as bad as Megan made out though," David persisted. "As far as I can see, it can't get any worse."

The elevator dropped a few feet, and the blue light intensified for some reason. Megan whacked him with her bag.

"You never, ever say that," she accused. David dodged another blow from the bag.

Then there was a loud snap from above, the blue light cut out abruptly, and the elevator plummeted.

"_I'm not missing this one."_

_He looked up at the building. There was the girl, running through the car park and through the door. He gave chase, ignoring the staff telling him not to run, and reached the doors just they closed. The second time! Not again! Not after three long years!_

_Then he looked down, and blinked._

"Oh, damn."

He didn't know how long he was out, but he knew when he woke up that every bone in his body ached. David rubbed his head, wincing. The last thing he remembered...

Then he realized what he did remember, and tried to stand up. Instead, the pain in his legs forced him back down again. As he sat there, trying to regain use of his legs, something fluttered next to his ear.

"Hi Vir," he whispered. "Any chance of a light?"

"Bu."

There was a flash of light which stung his eyes, but it wasn't Viridian's move. It was one of Megan's torches. She ran over to him and knelt down.

"You okay, David?" she asked, offering him a hand. He took it and she helped him up, wincing as he did so.

"Where are we?"

Megan flashed her torch around, the light revealing shards of metal, plastic, her Weavile and sparking wires before settling on what appeared to be the largest surviving part of the elevator. Then it pointed upwards, revealing a neat shaft that went in only one direction. Up. No other light could be seen anywhere above them. They were a long way down.

Putting his hands on his hips, David looked first up the shaft, then at the elevator. "Isn't it funny how we got thrown clear?" he remarked. "I would have thought we'd have been crushed, or torn apart, or something. Even my glasses are still on."

Megan picked up her bag from a few feet away. "That's not what tends to happen. Trust me, I've done this once before, and what happened then..."

David blinked at her. "You've done it before? When?"

"Not elaborating."

"Ah."

Then he realized what was missing from the picture. "Where's Daz?"

This only brought a shrug from Megan. "He took a torch and wandered off. Said he'd try to find help or something."

"I did find something."

The beam of light swung around the chamber they were in until it settled on Darrell. He squinted. "Don't point that thing straight in my eyes."

"Sorry."

At this point Megan put her bag back down again as David was trying to get the remaining torch out.

"Anyway," Darrell continued, "I didn't find help, but I did find something I think you should see." He gestured towards a tunnel behind him. He added, "It's huge in there."

David stood up and flicked the torch on. "I say we go."

Sometimes it's impressive how the largest of spaces can make the smallest sounds.

"Ek."

Megan clobbered David with her torch.

The tunnel led to a narrow ledge around the top of a huge cavern, half of which was occupied by a curved concrete wall. Two pipes emerged from its side, one with a large section missing out of it, and large letters on the wall proclaimed it to be the wall of 'Silo K'. One of the pipes leaked water, and it had created a lake in the bottom of the cavern. Most prominent, however, was the large metal plus sign somehow attached to the wall. It was pretty obvious why David's mouth had dropped.

"I personally think it's a missile silo," Darrell said, oblivious to what David was doing. "I wonder how many people besides us know about it now?"

"Not very many, I should think," answered Megan, forcing David's jaw shut. "If many people knew about it, wouldn't they repair that pipe?"

"You have a point," Darrell acknowledged, thinking about it some more. "Where would it come up on the surface?"

After a few moments of silence, Megan worked it out. "Under the train station."

"Ah."

More silence. Then-

She squinted. "There's something in the pipe."

"Probably water or something," started Darrell, before Megan had got her binoculars out of her bag. She aimed them at the gap in the pipe.

"Looks like people," she reported, trying to focus on them. "Looks like... damn, they just went back in."

The ledge continued around to another, narrower, tunnel. Fitting through proved possible only by edging along sideways, which proved some discomfort. The three of them were glad when the tunnel widened out enough to walk forwards instead. It switched back to the left, headed downhill, switched back again, and presented another pipe. Darrell hit it with his torch, then grumbled as Megan hit him with hers, and made him pick the bits up off the floor.

"Air Intake Section 008," David read off a stamp at knee level, having recovered from the shock in the cavern. He looked up, trying to picture where this vertical pipe would emerge on the surface, then reached into his pocket and pulled out the battered guidebook. As he flicked through it, Viridian landed on his shoulder and watched him. Once he found what he was looking for, he held the page up into the torchlight.

"'The four stacks above the mine used to stand higher than they do now,'" read Megan, "'Three of them were used for venting smoke from extraction machines and furnaces, but the fourth is a mystery and has no connection to any of these systems. It is possible it leads to a section of the mine that has since collapsed.'"

"It doesn't, though," David confirmed, looking up again.

Darrell, trying unsuccessfully to put the torch back together, had a sudden thought. "Shouldn't we wait back at the elevator in case anyone tries to rescue us?" he asked.

The answer to this came from David, who was starting to walk further along the tunnel. He did an about-face and headed back the way they had come. "Man has a point."

It was after a few more steps that the roof of the tunnel leading back to the cavern gave way, throwing more dust everywhere. All three of them coughed, Megan trying her best to fan the dust away. David, in mid-stride, waited until the dust had cleared, then about-faced again.

"We go on," he declared.

"Duh, genius."

"Free."

The tunnel in the other direction grew progressively wider, until it reached a point where they could seemingly go no further; the tunnel turned sharply upwards, and there was no way they could climb it without specialist equipment. They studied it for a while, as Viridian rubbed the dust off her trademark sunglasses.

"What do we do now?" Darrell asked the obvious. David scratched his head for a minute, then responded.

"Panic?" he suggested, just prior to ducking a swing from Megan's torch.

"Well," decided she, "I'm going to take an inventory." Sitting down, she unzipped her bag and started pulling things out of it. The boys watched her, before checking their pockets. A pile began to grow on the floor, then when everything had been emptied out, they sorted them according to how useful they were likely to be. The fact that Megan's stuff was the most useful wasn't a surprise.

"One last thing," she mentioned, as she stuffed the cake box back into her bag after retrieving it from Viridian's clutches again, "What Pokemon did everyone bring?"

She pointed to the two Pokeballs in one of her bag's pockets.

"I've only got Absol... oh, and Ro- Weavile."

"Hang on," said David automatically, completely oblivious to the word Megan had been about to say before correcting herself. He fumbled with the capsules clipped onto his belt, recognizing the scratches on each one. "Vir, obviously, I got Holly, my Clefable, Mint, my Fearow, Autumn, my Bayleef, my cousin's stupid Meowth, and either Conduit the Magneton or Ruku the Luxray, I can't tell which without calling them out."

"Then why don't you?"

"Unless you hadn't noticed the width of this tunnel..."

"I," interrupted Darrell, "have got Drapion, Mismagius, and Psycho."

"Psycho?" repeated Megan, confused.

David picked up a small stone from near the pile and threw it at the wall. "Psychotic, mad, crazy, insert synonyms here Pachirisu." He sifted through the pile, picked up a biscuit that had been in his pocket, sniffed it, and threw it away in disgust.

Watching it bounce off the wall, Darrell raised an eyebrow. "How long has that thing been in your pocket?"

"Probably the best part of five years," David answered, smushing the pile. "I think it went in there when we went to Sulura High for the day."

He stood up. "Gonna wander over here and stretch my legs," he explained, then wandered over to the vertical tunnel and looked up in thought. Then he looked down, as the floor collapsed under him. He yelled, but it wasn't a long way down; just far enough to stop him from climbing back out again. Darrell and Megan's concerned faces appeared above him.

"Are you alright?" Megan called, dropping him down a torch. It landed on his head.

Rubbing his head and flicking the torch on, David replied, "Mostly... I didn't land on anything painful, at least I don't think I did..."

There was a WHUMP as Darrell landed next to him. "I think Dave's found our way out of here," he commented, pointing the torch all around. "Looks like a pipe to me."

Megan clambered down behind them. "Coming from that place we saw earlier?"

"Apparently." David kicked a pipe divider a short distance away. "The plus symbol's over here, with a bunch of others."

The others walked over to examine it. It looked like a door in the divider. Six circular depressions marked the centre, and there were symbols in each of them. The plus marked the sixth hole.

"I've seen this one before," Megan said, frowning, pointing to the first one, which looked like a Y with the upper two branches dividing into more Ys. "That was graffitied onto the wall outside North Elling station a few years ago."

"Now that you mention it," Darrell continued, looking at the first one closely, "It's on the posters for the Rubywell Art Gallery as well, I was looking forwards to going there tomorrow."

David looked down, and took a couple of steps backwards. "And we're standing on it."

The others stepped back and followed his gaze, both giving a small cry of alarm. Sure enough, the first symbol was cut out of the mud on the floor of the pipe. David shivered.

"Did it just get a lot colder in here?"

Megan gave him an odd look. "No. Let's just get out of here."

They had to run to catch up to Darrell, who'd already started, and then they ran from there (Viridian flying, of course) in the opposite direction.

Unbeknownst to them, as soon as they'd stopped looking up the incline, they were being watched from on top of it, and it was this presence that had piqued David's interest. The worried pair of eyes in the darkness had witnessed everything said there, and when they'd gone down into the pipe, had turned and ran in the opposite direction, saying one phrase over and over again.

"Not good."

A few moments of silence passed.

Then the six depressions in the door in the pipe lit up, one by one, and with a quiet rumble, the door slid open...

_Long ago, when I was young, I only had to follow__  
The map that was spread out wide in my imagination  
__Always searching, looking for anything to believe in  
A trust that would last for good and not get lost in time_

_My true dream... could never be discouraged or broken, not then_

_Now... that I've grown up it feels like the dream has turned to dust  
But with the help of my friends I can start to remember  
Remaining memories snatched from long ago  
Help me now along the the way_

_Memories ~ One Piece Ending 1/Genesis Ending 1_

I'll skip whatever I had here before; mainly because it involved the position of the review box in 2007; besides this fact about this chapter. The story never started here. When the later episodes are uploaded, you may want to revisit the earlier ones and see what's changed. But nevermind about that now, just go on to

episode one  
Waste Extraction


	2. GE001 Waste Extraction

So here it is, the fabled first chapter. As mentioned in the header for the prologue, it was my intention to have this uploaded on or before January 11 2007. And here it is, two and a half years later. I don't know what the word count of the original draft was, but it was certainly smaller than the current tot of around 13,000 words, and contained a lot less of the character development.

Also beginning in this chapter is the first of the 'unlockables' that should appear in a number of episodes. There are a wide variety of unlockable types; for example, in this chapter you get a transcript from Megan's Pokenav. In later chapters you might get more transcripts, the full size lyrics for the songs, and even some art, posted when applicable and when completed on DeviantArt.

* * *

The trio walked in silence for a while, as their surroundings grew darker and darker until the only light there was came from their torches, which illuminated the seemingly endless continuation of the pipe.

"I wonder what we'll find?" murmured Darrell. Then before David could say anything, added, "Rhetorical question."

"Personally," David said anyway, "I think it's collapsed at some point ahead and we're trapped down here for the rest of our lives."

"Yeah, well, you would."

David rolled his eyes and returned his attention to the path ahead.

"There might be treasure," Darrell suggested. "Gold-laden treasure chests. Think what we could do with those."

"You've been watching too many bad movies," Megan reprimanded, from behind them. "Has anyone ever discovered anything like that in real life?"

"It's possible."

"No," Megan repeated, "it's not."

"Silver?"

"Stop it."

"Free," Viridian commented.

"Don't you think it's weird," David interrupted, "That we haven't seen any Pokemon besides Vir down here?"

"Mmm," murmured one of the others, he couldn't tell who.

"Perhaps there's some sort of force field that keeps them out."

Megan jabbed him in the back with her torch. "Says the boy who lives next to a stables. I think all that hay's gone to your head."

"Abandoned stables," David interrupted again, wincing at too many memories of fire evacuations that sprung to mind. "There isn't any hay left. Nor any roofs for that matter."

"That's how much it's gotten to you."

"They took all the Ponyta and Rapidash," he continued, "and moved them to a farm somewhere, uh..." he paused, trying to remember. "Somewhere north-ish, I think."

"Ecruteak City is not 'north-ish'," Darrell pointed out. There was then a small flicker then a glare of light from his torch. "Hey, my torch is working again."

"We do not need you making fun of my sense of direction, thank you," David said, rolling his eyes, before pointing his torch at his wrist. "And while that's working, my watch isn't."

Darrell kept walking but leaned over. "Has your watch ever worked?"

Tap, tap. "It was earlier," David said, pressing the buttons on it. "I remember that it was about an hour before the movie when we decided we had to leave." Achieving no result, he returned his torch beam to the floor. Darrell also returned his attention to the path ahead, and for no reason Viridian started singing.

It took them a couple dozen steps to realize that Megan hadn't said anything in a while and that there were only two torch beams striking the floor of the pipe ahead of them again.

"Megan?" they both asked simultaneously, spinning around, torch beams waving frantically around, looking for their unanswering companion.

"What was it that she last said?" David asked, taking a few steps back they way they'd come, then suddenly massaging his temples. "Ow."

Darrell continued searching the immediate area. "She insulted you."

"Let's ignore that for the moment." Taking a few steps further, David turned back to Darrell. "She can't be that far back."

His friend objected. "Look, she's gone, and one of us might go missing if we go back for her!"

Pausing only to argue a bit more, Darrell finally turned back while David started to walk further back the way they'd come.

"AAAARGH!"

Laughing, Megan gave Darrell a hand up while David walked back, slightly confused. "Took you long enough."

When he'd turned around, he'd been greeted with Megan's face with a torch under it, which in the darkness gave it the illusion of hovering above the ground.

"You could have gotten David as well!" Darrell complained, recovering. "Unless he's in on it too..." he narrowed his eyes at his suspect, who raised his hands in protest.

"I never saw her, honest."

After another argument which ended with David saying "In any case, never do that again", they set off once more, Megan in slightly higher spirits after her little joke, and Viridian still singing.

_Here I stand, looking on new ground  
Where I know new friends can be found  
All those smiles can help me to forget my tears  
But I vow never to forget you_

_No matter where, how far we are apart  
You know I always think of you  
That's right_

_Remember  
We swiftly moved through all the forests so green  
Nothing compares to what we've seen  
A perfect world  
Then you tell me: "Yes, I'm OK"_

_Remember  
You said "No power could force us apart  
Our love so strong, we're joined at the heart"  
But now you're gone, all those words, left behind_

_Battle Frontier – Pokemon Opening 9/Remember – Genesis Opening 1_

GENERATIONS  
GENESIS  
Episode 1: Waste Extraction  
"GE001"

They had only walked a few more steps when the pipe shook violently beneath their feet, throwing all three of them to the ground; Viridian just fluttered around, her singing finished and replaced with agitated noises. When the tremor subsided, Megan was the first to raise her head. "Is everyone alright?"

Standing up, Darrell replied "I think so..." then he turned around. "Guys?"

"Hmm?" asked Megan, giving David a hand up.

"I really, really hope there's a way out at the end of this pipe."

"Why, wha-" David began, before noticing that in the space they'd just walked through was a pile of earth, rock and shards of metal, illuminated by Darrell's torch. The only method of seeing through it appeared to be a much smaller pipe, sticking directly out of the rubble. This Darrell put his eye to, before retreating to avoid being blinded by the blue light at its other end.

A couple of seconds later, he put his ear to the pipe instead.

"What are you-" Megan began, but Darrell interrupted by flapping his hand up and down. Another moment passed, and he stood up, with a decidedly confused look on his face.

From that look, something had to be up. "Well?"

"I distinctly heard the phrase 'Take it from me, it's not as easy as it looks'," he reported, raising his eyebrow.

Everyone looked at their feet while they tried to figure it out. David, failing completely, looked up, bright expression on his face.

"We go on!" he exclaimed, and started walking.

"You've said that already," muttered Megan, following him, with Darrell (still musing on the phrase) in tow. "Should just gag you now." Viridian sniggered.

"Butterfree free ee," she put forwards.

"That didn't sound very nice, Vir," David commented, without pausing. Viridian stuck her tongue out.

A few seconds after they started walking again, Megan's torch beam disappeared from the floor again, but only to move to her other hand which was pressing buttons on something. Eventually she gave a huge sigh and returned her attention to the path ahead.

Before either of the boys could ask, she explained. "My Pokenav."

"No signal?" Darrell predicted.

"No signal," Megan confirmed.

After another moment, David stopped. "Guys?"

"Hm?" Both of the others turned around. David pointed ahead of them.

"Is it just me or is there a fire up ahead?"

They all turned their torches off and squinted. Sure enough, there was a glow some distance away.

"It could be a way out?" suggested Darrell, starting again.

"Quite possibly," Megan agreed, joining him.

Pausing only a moment, David ran to catch up with them. "Somehow, I don't think so."

"Thank you," Darrell said dryly, throwing David a glare, "for that observation, Private Pessimist."

After that, all three of them broke into a run, Viridian pressed hard to catch up. Once they reached the source of the glow, they halted.

"What did I tell you?" David smirked, folding his arms, turning and boring his gaze into Darrell's head.

"Yeah, fine, the pipe's collapsed," Darrell conceded, looking across the gap of several metres to where the pipe was still intact and continued away into the darkness. He looked down, and took a step backwards – there was water at the bottom, but it looked a very long way away.

The source of the light was indeed a fire, although not a very big one – and by the looks of it, intentionally lit, seeing as it was a wood torch propped up against the edge of the pipe. He picked it up, immediately regretted it and dropped it again, wincing and shaking his hand.

"Hot, is it?" asked Megan, grinning, stepping up next to him and using her torch to investigate the places the burning torch couldn't light up. There was a ledge underneath the far side of the pipe, which disappeared into a cave on the left, and another, slightly narrower ledge below the section they were in. Suddenly thinking about something, she reaimed her torch at the far side, to reveal what she thought she'd seen – an almost identical torch, but with its fire out.

It was probably a pretty good guess that there was a safe way around the gap, and it begun with the ledge beneath them. Handing her torch to David, Megan cautiously lowered herself off the rim, and discovered that the ledge was just wide enough if she flattened herself against the wall. She shuffled left, and disappeared into darkness, until Darrell aimed his torch over and lit up her standing safely again in a second cave.

As Darrell climbed down, David had a sudden thought. "Vir, can you feel a breeze down here?"

Viridian fluttered up into the air, spun around a few times, then landed again, shaking her head. "Bu."

"That's what I thought. There is no exit through there."

Following the cave around led to a slightly larger cavern, where he met the other two staring at what was inside.

"What," he asked flatly, "is it this-" he stopped, and actually paid attention to the surroundings.

It could be described as an explosion of objects. Junk protruded through the rock walls. Several doors littered the floor; there was even a damaged bust propped up against one of the said doors.

"-hell," David managed to finish, his jaw dropping again, his outstretched hand offering Megan's torch back. She took it from him.

Already Darrell had moved up to a pipe and had his eye pressed against it, in a vain attempt to see something. David bumped into him on purpose on his way to examine what looked like the remains of a water boiler. Viridian had tried opening one of the doors to see if there was anything behind it.

"Careful, you could have taken my eye out on this thing!" Darrell reprimanded, to no effect as his target wasn't listening, too busy examining a sign on said boiler.

Smearing some dust off it, he read "Manufactured by Heat-it-Up Boilers for the Grand Hotel."

"Imaginative name on both accounts," Megan observed, watching what her torch beam fell on, then having a thought and digging in her bag. "And this doesn't look anything like a hotel."

"Maybe something..." suggested Darrell, looking at Megan retrieving a camera from her bag, "that _was_ a hotel?"

FLASH. "One for the album."

David looked up. "Where would this be on the surface?"

After a few moments of calculation, Darrell spoke up. "I've absolutely no idea."

Squeaking with excitement, Viridian landed on his head and made some rapid pointing movements towards one of the doors, propped up against a wall. She had managed to open it... and find another door behind it. However, this one was iron, set into the cave wall. The trio walked up to it, and the two boys decided to go about opening it while Megan stared at it.

David and Darrell had just got a piece of pipe dislodged and were wielding it to use as a crowbar, when Megan reached forwards and knocked on the door. There was a pause, before she realised David was still holding the pipe.

"Put that thing down," she hissed at him.

"It could be dangerous!" David objected. Megan sighed and was just reaching to take the pipe off him when there were a number of clicking noises, the sound of a large bolt being drawn, and the door rumbled open.

"Aaargh!"

"Aaargh!"

"Aaargh!"

"Aaarc!"

CLANG!

The screaming went on for some time, from both parties. The first person to stop was Megan, who had decided to see what they were screaming at, having acted on instinct when the door opened. David, though, might just be screaming because he dropped the pipe on his foot.

The person standing in the doorway might have looked familiar, perhaps somebody she'd travelled with on one of her journeys, if he didn't also happen to have cream, orange and black fur, claws, a tail and the general appearance of someone who'd been put in a blender with an Arcanine.

Unfortunately, even at this point, David, Darrell and Mr Blend were still screaming (loudly) and hadn't noticed that she'd stopped to look. Worse, they didn't show any signs that they'd let up soon. Megan sighed, and gripped her torch.

"The things I have to do..." she muttered, taking Darrell's torch from him, flipping both in her hands, and raising them up above the nearest two screamers' heads.

"It was for your own good," she pointed out, a short while afterwards. "You would've been there for ages if I hadn't done anything."

"Still..." Darrell started, rubbing the bruise on the back of his head. "You didn't have to hit so hard."

"Yes, I did," Megan shot back. "You only stopped screaming after the second hit."

They had followed the now slightly dazed half-Arcanine in through the door, discovering in the process that he must have been down there for quite a while; there was furniture scattered liberally about, that looked like it might have belonged in the building that was in pieces in the previous chamber. It was some of these rickety-looking-but-actually-quite-sturdy chairs that they were now sitting on.

The chamber they were in currently looked too artificial to have been formed naturally; the floor was, for the most part, flat, and several other rock passages led out of it, which were also blocked by doors. The half-Arcanine had staggered through one of these doors and, from what they could see, was trying to nurse the bruise on his head.

"You could have given us a moment, at least," sighed David, trying to ignore the pain at both ends of his body. "We would've gotten over it."

"As much as I would have loved to leave you for a moment-" Megan began.

"You wouldn't..." muttered Darrell.

"...we're trapped underground with no way back to the surface. I don't think standing around screaming for five minutes is going to help."

David looked up. "And you think he's going to?"

The half-Arcanine had reentered the room rubbing a hand- er, paw against his head and muttering something under his breath. He dropped into a chair a short distance away, and, ignoring David and Darrell, stared at Megan. Megan returned the stare. Now that they had the time to observe him, they noticed that he had a visible scar over his right eye.

Leaning over, David whispered to Darrell, "Should we be scared that he's looking at Megan?"

"You know," Megan said, as Darrell opened his mouth to reply. "I'd swear that I used to know you, if it wasn't for certain... changes."

With his mouth still open, Darrell looked from the half-Arcanine to David and back.

"That's funny," the half-Arcanine replied, still glaring, "I'd say the same."

Now David glanced at Darrell.

"...Megan?" the half-Arcanine ventured.

"...Richard?" Megan asked at the same time.

You could have cut the silence with a blunt pencil. Behind Megan, both boys' jaws dropped.

"Your hair was longer, and brown," 'apparently Richard' said, still glaring, although not as harshly.

"You didn't have a tail," Megan pointed out. "Or fur."

"Okay," David interrupted, standing up. "Can somebody please explain what's going on? This may be a reunion, but half of us here haven't got a clue what you're on about."

Megan sighed. "Guys, this – apparently – is Richard Gasson. He used to travel with me and a couple others." She turned to look back at him. He nodded.

"Helping a kid called Rory on the Edo League. He lost, naturally. There was no way he could win with that team composition."

"Okay, that proves it, you ARE Richard. You said exactly the same thing at the time when he got eliminated."

"I'm still lost. How come he looks like that then?" David butted in.

"He doesn't know either," Richard interrupted. "One moment I was in Arthur Street Station, the next, I'm down here, I look like this, and my legs are killing me."

"So you don't know?" asked David. Megan groaned and reached for her torch again.

"No. I don't even know how long ago it was, either. My watch stopped working when I got down here."

"Hey, my watch isn't working either!" David exclaimed brightly, turning his head and getting whacked.

Darrell looked around conspiratorially, then leaned towards Richard. "Can you actually-"

Sighing, Richard gestured at a splintered wooden beam propped up against a wall. "Watch." He screwed up his eyes in concentration, then, opening them, coughed up a fireball. It engulfed the beam, flaring up. By the time they could look back at it without the fear of being blinded, the beam had been replaced with a smouldering pile of ash. Darrell's jaw dropped.

"Whoaaa..." he murmured.

Rubbing his head and giving Megan a look, David realised what Richard had said just a moment ago. "Waitaminute. Rory? Is he talking your boyfriend Rory?"

This was clearly news to Richard. "So you're going out with him now?"

Megan, in the process of rechecking the contents of her bag, looked up. "Sort of."

"Sort of?"

"Sort of," Megan confirmed, glaring at Viridian, daring her to go for the cake again. Viridian glared back from under her sunglasses, but didn't move. "He called me this morning, said he was going to the Element Tower Memorial again." Having emptied her bag and not found fault, she filled it up again.

Richard looked down. "It must have hit him pretty hard, huh..." he lifted a paw to his right eye, wincing.

David walked to the far end of the chamber and back. "I still don't really know what happened," he confessed. "I was on a cruise through the Orange Islands. All I saw was a few flickers of light to the north and then nothing until the papers came out the next day. I put a photo from said paper in a scrapbook."

"I saw it on TV," Darrell added. "Scary stuff."

"It's one thing to see it on TV. It's another thing entirely to have actually been there," Megan said. Both she and Richard glanced at each other then looked away.

"But please," David continued, "if you don't want to think about it, that's fine, I didn't want a flashback anyway. I dare say I'll find out later anyway."

Something else had triggered in Megan's mind, and she turned back to Richard. "What happened to all of your Pokemon?"

"Most of them were in the Pokemon Centre..." he replied, thinking. "I think Tik and Domer were with my mother at a Contest in Kraene... and I've no clue where Joxen went."

"He'll explain later," Megan told the others' confused faces. Richard opened his mouth to object but thought better of it and closed it again. "Which brings me to the next question," she continued, eyeing David, who was patting down his pockets, suspiciously. "Do you know a way out of here?"

Richard gave him an odd look. "If I did, wouldn't I use it? Besides, you haven't actually told me where we are."

"No, for fear of being experimented on by scientists who want to know everything about being half-Pokemon like they've been trying to create for years?" suggested Darrell. "We're beneath Hyrn Hill, by the way, and it's February 15th." Richard paused.

"That as well."

Looking upwards, he attempted to click his fingers. "There was someone... must be a resident or something, came by earlier looking for something else. He didn't find it here, so he went away." He walked towards one of the doors. "Said his name was Avery something-or-other."

Raising an eyebrow, Darrell stood up also. "And he didn't make any comments?"

"Nah... to be honest, I don't think he was paying any attention to who I was. Besides, he did tell me that if I put up even a flicker of light his eyes would burn out."

David opened his mouth, then saw Megan's face and shut it.

The door swung open. "Let me just grab the key to the back door." From within, they could hear some faint music, maybe from a CD (considering what else was down here, it would make sense); "...go let's go, here we're going to stay..." it was actually quite catchy, and as the song was shut off by the door again, Megan found herself humming it. She wondered what the rest of the lyrics were.

Richard led them to a door at the far end of the cave from where they'd entered, turned a key in its lock, slid back a bolt (only one, compared to the other end which had many) and invited them through it. The tunnel behind it emerged next to the remainder of the pipe they'd been in earlier; however, the ledge was lower than they'd expected and jutted out about six feet below the lower rim, and all four of them stood around waiting for somebody to volunteer. Viridian flew up onto the edge of the pipe and shouted in encouragement.

"I'll give you guys a leg up," suggested Richard. "I want to try something."

The others looked at each other nervously, unsure whether to agree or not. Well, by 'the others' meaning the two other boys. Megan walked up, undaunted, and gripping the rim of the pipe, pulled herself up while Richard lifted her feet with his paws. Viridian kept shouting loudly.

"Jeez, you don't need to be so loud," Megan complained, giving her a look. Viridian closed her mouth and started sulking instead, muttering something under her breath.

"That's not very nice."

Within moments, she was high enough to raise one leg into the pipe and the other quickly followed suit; and in the next moment she was on her feet and encouraging Darrell and David. They looked at each other.

"You go first," said David, stepping back.

"I won't bite or anything," Richard reassured, all too aware of his teeth.

"It's not your teeth I'm worried about," David explained, keeping his eye on Richard's paws and subsequently claws. Megan sighed.

"Richard couldn't hurt a fly," she said, as Darrell stepped forwards for help up. "Just come on."

David frowned, still unsure.

"Let me rephrase that."

Richard pushed Darrell up the rest of the way, and both of them covered their ears.

"JUST GET A MOVE ON, YOU PATHETIC EXCUSE FOR A JOHTO NEAR-FINALIST!"

The full impact of Megan's micro-rant hit David like a ton of bricks.

"He got near the final in the Johto League?" Richard asked Megan incredulously, watching David stagger around with his hands clutching his ears. She nodded.

"I watched him on TV last season. He came fourth."

"Aaargh," confirmed David.

"Funny," Megan commented, grinning. "He seems to want a hand up now."

Darrell and Megan pulled David up, then looked expectantly at their half-Arcanine friend. He looked down at the ground, then back up at them.

"Stand back," he advised.

They dragged David back a good distance, retrieved Viridian from her shelter beneath a box, and waited.

Nobody was entirely sure what happened next, apart from the WHOOSH and the jet of flames racing towards the top of the pipe. What they knew after that was that Richard was sitting in front of them, fur slightly singed, yelling in triumph.

"Whoo!"

Darrell blinked. "What did he..."

"Next stop, the moon!"

"Aargh."

"What," he repeated, "did he do?"

"I think," Megan said slowly, "he used himself as a rocket."

According to what Richard told them next, it was exactly what he'd done. He'd used the rock wall to flip himself upside-down, and unleashed a flamethrower that propelled him upwards.

"It's so simple even David could understand it," marvelled Megan.

"I – ow – resent that remark," David complained, now capable of sensical speech again, massaging his ears. He picked himself up off the floor and made an attempt to brush the dirt off. At least it had taken some of the dust off from earlier.

"Shall we continue, then?" Megan suggested, turning her torch on.

The fire torches Richard had lit faded quickly into the distance, and they were left with only the light of the two remaining torches. They walked for some time, the only noises being their footsteps and Viridian singing to herself again. Until Megan broke the silence.

"Richard?"

"Yeah?"

"Don't s'pose you can see in the dark as well?"

He laughed. "I'm not a superhero. All I've got is your torches." Then a thought occurred. "Hang on."

BAMF.

A fire flared up in his hand, flooding the section of pipe with light. The others blinked, then switched their torches off.

"You could have done that in the first place, you know," muttered Darrell, annoyed, stowing his torch away.

"Just try not to set any of us on fire, 'kay?" David advised, still wary and keeping his distance. "It hurts."

One set of footsteps stopped. "How would you know?" Darrell asked, raising an eyebrow. "Besides the obvious answer of 'because it would'."

David grimaced. "I don't like to remember it. But yes, I have been set on fire before, but it was a very angry Magmortar and it wasn't my fault."

"Right," Darrell said, starting up again. "You angered a Magmortar and got set on fire. Ok."

"Wasn't my fault," David stressed. "That local kid I was with at the time found it hilarious. I wasn't very happy with him either."

"I imagine it must have been," put in Richard. "Judging from what I've seen of you so far, I'd say you were running about yelling 'FIRE!'"

Both he and Darrell laughed. David huffed. Viridian was looking the other way.

"I wish I could have seen that," Richard finished. "How 'bout you, Megan?"

Silence.

"Oh, not AGAIN..." David said, loudly annoyed. He turned behind them. Nothing. Forwards. Nothing. He rubbed his temples again. "And that's some mean headache."

"Again?"

"She played a joke on us before we met you," Darrell explained, turning on a torch and looking up. "She somehow got in front of us and scared us."

Something crunched behind them. They all turned.

"Viridian, leave that alone," David reprimanded, picking her up against her protests. "You don't know where it's been."

"Free," she muttered.

Darrell sighed. "She'll turn up, let's just go." He and Richard turned back.

"AARGH!"

"AARC!"

FWOOMF!

The expression on their faces was priceless. David sniggered behind his hand, while Megan and Viridian were both laughing their heads off. Darrell was just shellshocked, and both of Richard's paws were now on fire and held up protectively in front of his face.

"Let me get this straight – you got Vir to use confusion on us while we weren't looking, and that hid you from us?" David asked, once the offending girl had her breath back.

"How did you guess?" Megan asked, still grinning.

"I used the same thing on a gang down in Vermillion, before I moved up here," he explained, waving a hand in front of Darrell's face. "It tends to only work once or twice on a given person, hence why I had the killer headaches both times." He moved onto Richard. "Calming him down is your job."

Easing gingerly around the flames, Megan got a look at Richard's eyes, which had gone white. "I'd say this is more of an unconscious reaction of his Arcanine side."

"Well, still your department, I never paid attention in psychology."

* * *

REACTOR WRITES:  
So, where are they?

REACTOR WRITES:  
I was under the impression that they should have been and gone.

REACTOR WRITES:  
I sincerely hope you're not lying to me about them arriving.

MANSION WRITES:  
You? Sincere? Fat chance.

REACTOR WRITES:  
How many times do I have to tell you to stop being rude to me!

MANSION WRITES:  
Too many times.

MANSION HAS LEFT THE CONVERSATION (I only stop at exits)

REACTOR WRITES:  
Now, Maze.

REACTOR WRITES:  
Maze?

REACTOR WRITES:  
Is anyone there?

POWER WRITES:  
I'm here. Don't know about the others.

SERVER WRITES:  
All is silent... (Automatic 5 minute silence message, you may turn this feature off)

REACTOR WRITES:  
Apparently not.

MAZE WRITES:  
I apologise. There was a leak that I had to repair.

REACTOR WRITES:  
WHERE ARE THEY, MAZE?

MAZE WRITES:  
I have no idea, but I

MAZE WRITES:  
Hang on. Trackers have picked them up. They are coming.

REACTOR WRITES:  
Then get to work.

REACTOR WRITES:  
Don't fail me.

MAZE WRITES:  
I won't.

MAZE WRITES:  
I'll have them beat in no

REACTOR WRITES:  
Maze?

MAZE WRITES:  
kopmio'[ji,phji

MAZE HAS LEFT THE CHATROOM (Lost in a Labyrinth)

POWER WRITES:  
What was that about?

REACTOR WRITES:  
...

REACTOR WRITES:  
Nothing he can't handle by himself.

REACTOR has gone AFK

POWER WRITES:  
...

POWER WRITES:  
Something doesn't add up here.

POWER has gone AFK

* * *

Once Darrell had recovered, and Richard had been coaxed into relaxing, they set off once more down the pipe. Every now and again they would stop to examine an object on the floor – more often that not something like a mug or a plastic cup, for some bizarre reason. There were a few large objects, none of which could be identified for all of the muck on them.

"What do you reckon this pipe's used for?" Darrell asked the party at general, picking up another mug and tossing it.

"Rubbish," David provided, glancing up. Before Darrell could get another word in he clarified. "Rubbish, trash, waste, yadda yadda yadda. Assumption based entirely on the utter crud that's everywhere."

That brought up another question which both Darrell and Megan asked at the same time.

"Rubbish from what?"

David waved his arms in the air. "How should I know?" Then he spotted something that stood out; a short distance away on the floor, something glinted out from underneath the 'crud'. He kicked the dirt off it and picked it up carefully, his eyes widening.

Now it was Darrell's turn to act smug. "See?" he told Megan.

"It's fake," announced David, tossing away the yellow crystal. Then, as an afterthought, "Sorry, Daz."

Darrell ignored him and picked it up again. "Looks real to me," he said, putting his eye up against it.

"If and when we get out of this, remind me to show you the collection I have at home then."

Richard stopped, then bent down to the ground where David had picked the crystal up. "There are prints in the dirt," he said.

"Human or Pokemon?" Megan asked, looking down on them. Richard traced it with his claw, murmured something, then stood up.

"Definitely Pokemon, but as to what type, I've no idea," he announced. The others sweatdropped. "I was down with Torchic-pox when they had track identifying at school. But what I do know for a fact is that we can find out what made them."

Turning, David started again. "We follow them!"

Megan rolled her eyes. "Duh."

The footprints went on for some time before veering away to the left. The reason for this was obvious, as Richard's fireball lit up the surroundings; ahead of them, the pipe had completely caved in.

"Not that we wanted to end up in a waste pit," Darrell said brightly.

The prints went into a hole in the pipe that looked about big enough for them to enter. Richard ducked into it, discovering that it was only wide enough for one person at a time.

Unsure, David voiced his opinion. "You reckon it's safe in there?"

Richard pounded a wall, then winced and grabbed his paw. "Pretty sure. That wall's solid."

"Everybody in, I suppose," Megan said. "It was good enough for whoever was here last, it's good enough for us."

What they discovered to Richard's cost a few moments later was that the tunnel didn't have the same dimensions all the way through. By its end, it was so low and narrow all four of them had to scoot along sideways in a crouch. Once out, ignoring his surroundings, David complained loudly about his knees.

"Quit moaning," Megan told him from the crack behind him. "And move out of the way." She gave him a push, knocking him over. Only a quick off the mark Psychic from Viridian, and Richard grabbing his arm, was able stop him whacking his head on the concrete floor, which his glasses bounced on.

Wait, what? "Concrete?"

It was. Flat, stable, human-engineered concrete. And a lot of it. Rolling over, David got a better view of the chamber he and the others had now emerged into.

The crack had emerged into an oblong room, of which the wall it emerged on was almost completely blank. The only interesting wall was the one on their immediate right, featuring four doorways on their level, and several balconies. Mounted below the largest of these, right in the centre, was the Y symbol again.

And the prints led along the floor and straight up the wall, disappearing into the doorway of said largest balcony.

Megan flicked her torch off and examined the wall, ignoring David shivering again. She walked along it, running her finger along it, coming about a third of the way to where there was a very dirty metal plaque screwed in. Digging in her pockets, she found a wad of crumpled tissues, which she used to clean the dirt off.

"Waste Disposal Control Centre," she read, as the others eased their cramps. Reading the next line, her eyes widened. "...for the Hyrn Hill Experimental Reactor."

Darrell's head shot up. "What, as in nuclear? I never knew there was a nuclear power station under Hyrn Hill."

"Apparently there is."

"That big silo we saw earlier?" asked David, still on the floor. "That could be it."

He stood up, and put his glasses on. "Now, is there a way out through one of these doors or what?"

"One path will lead you."

Every one looked up, Megan and Darrell backing away from the wall to see the source of this new voice.

"Friend of yours?" David whispered to Richard, whose eyes were wide. "Looks like he's had your experience."

That is what it looked like; someone else who'd been crossed with a Pokemon, namely Umbreon this time around, standing on the central balcony. He wasn't that old, but older than them, certainly; wearing jeans, a very shabby T-shirt, sunglasses (underground?), and a very annoyed expression. He glared at them for a few moments before turning and walking back deeper into the room beyond the balcony.

"He..." Megan was lost for words. "Didn't look happy to see us."

"Looked like somebody who's been forced to watch too many reruns of QU and This Is What Happened," Darrell put forwards. "The jokes do get old after a while."

"I've never seen him before in my life," Richard responded to David's earlier question. Megan moved forwards again, this time to a door. She opened it. Steps led downwards. She shut it again, moving to another. A passage straight ahead. The third door concealed the same as the first, and the fourth was a cupboard full of mops and buckets.

"One path will lead you," she muttered, walking from door to door. Then she snapped her fingers. "It's a maze."

Darrell blinked. "How'd you reach that conclusion?"

"He said, 'One path will lead you'."

"Yeees, and?"

Megan pointed to each door in succession. "Only one door, one path, leads to an exit, the rest are all dead ends."

She started talking in-depth about how she worked it out, and Darrell turned to Richard. "Did she do this with you?"

"All the time."

"Personally, I'll never understand girls," David expressed. "One of life's great mysteries."

One of the doors banged. They all looked around. Megan had gone.

"She always did that as well," Richard said, walking over to one of the doors and opening it. "Megan?"

No response. He tried the other doors, and had similar results.

"So we split up and look for her," he suggested, opening a door. David waved his finger about at the doors, and picked the one on the end. Darrell counted silently to three before there was a clang, a muttered 'oh, shoot', another clang, and he reemerged with a sheepish grin and a bucket on his foot.

"You go that way," Darrell said, taking charge of what was left of the group. "And I'll go this way."

David shook his head. "Nuh uh. You go down the stairs. I don't want to trip up, and this bucket is stuck fast."

They glared at each other for a moment, before Darrell gave up. "Suit yourself." When he'd gone through the third door, David looked at Viridian, shrugged, and opened the central door. He sniffed.

"Phroar," he managed, wrinkling his nose. "That wasn't you, was it Vir?"

Viridian squeaked in indignation, and they both looked down the passage. Then David stood back and shut the door, cutting off the nasty smell.

"Not going that way."

He had just opened the door Richard had gone through when he heard the voice again above him, although much fainter. He closed the door again quietly and looked up, concentrating. Odd... it sounded as if he was arguing with himself. And yet... the two different sides of the argument came from the same voice, but in different tones...

"Graaggh... Mew help me..."

That voice was tired, maybe slightly scared.

"They must not get any further."

And that one sounded like David's brother in a tournament; completely unfazed and in control.

"They... they will get as far as I let them!"

A laugh. "You have no choice in the matter. Even if they reach here, they cannot get past me."

"And if they free me?"

Another laugh. "They cannot. You are mine, Matthew."

Hmmm. Matthew. That would at least be better than calling him Umbreon man. He waited a little longer just to try and hear any more of the conversation, but there wasn't anybody, and he opened the door again.

CLANG!

A step forwards had resulted in tripping over the bucket, along with an extremely loud clang that would not leave his presence unnoticed. There was the sound of footsteps above him, and he scrambled to get into the corridor, easing the bucket down the steps as quietly as possible.

"So, that's how I did it."

Megan grinned, a grin that quickly faded as she realized that the others weren't there and she was at a crossroads. Looking down each one, she turned around and headed back in the other direction. That was where she'd find the others.

It was only when she made a right turn into a small dead-end room with a broken coffee machine in it that she knew she was hopelessly lost. She certainly hadn't passed this room on the way through the first time. Unless the maze changed itself, which was impossible-

At the precise moment the thought crossed her mind, the ground jolted beneath her, and as she grabbed the coffee machine for balance, she witnessed the passage she'd just entered from, a turn to the left, disappear towards the ceiling and become a turn to the right.

"Oh joy," she muttered to herself sarcastically, moving from the room before it had a chance to trap her. "I'm going to love this..."

Some distance away now, Richard had given up yelling Megan's name, and was now concentrating on trying to navigate the twisty passages he'd come across, some of which not even high enough to walk along. Whoever designed this maze, he decided, should be roasted. By him.

Like Megan, Darrell too had discovered the fact that bits of the maze moved. He'd witnessed it when the passage in front of him suddenly became a solid wall, and he only just stopped in time to not bloody his nose on it.

David, meanwhile, was not so lucky.

"Help," he yelled to whoever could hear him. "I'm stuck..."

Viridian was useless to help him. The bucket had tripped him up again, and to make matters worse the maze had tried to move on him at exactly the same time. The end result was the bucket jammed in between two walls and David still stuck in the bucket.

"Is anyone there at all?"

Viridian squeaked again and landed on the ground next to him. He grinned at her. "I must look like someone out of a sitcom," he mused. "One of those awful ones with bogus Broadbourne accents."

Pause.

"Help..."

Megan wiped her brow. It was starting to get hot for some reason, and there wasn't a lot she could do about it. She did have a miniature fan in her bag, but as far as she knew it was broken. And then she discovered the source of the heat, and wished she hadn't.

She had emerged from the maze onto a narrow rocky ledge, which ran a good distance above a pool of – gulp – magma. The ledge didn't look too promising, so she turned around. The corridor promptly disappeared upwards.

"Aw, pidge," she moaned, turning and sidling onto the ledge. "The things I have to do... and he said nothing would happen!"

Thankfully the ledge widened further on, and looked a whole lot more stable, so she was able to actually walk forwards instead of sideways, and without the worry that it would collapse under her at any second. But still her rant continued.

"And I told him I didn't want to come, and he bribed me with a movie that we probably won't even see."

"Which one was that?"

She jumped, then looked up to where the voice had come from. Richard was peering over the edge of a rock bridge some distance above her.

"Temple of the Sea."

"I saw that. It's not as good as it sounds."

With a thump, he landed next to her on the ledge, and instinctively Megan reached forwards to grab him and stop him from falling over into empty space.

"Would you be able to survive lava?" she quizzed him, looking down. Richard took a closer look at what lay below, whistled, and stood back.

"I am a fire type but I don't want to find out."

The ledge went on for some time, during which Megan explained that she'd gone through the middle of the three available doors, despite the smell, which she'd discovered to her disgust was a lavatory that hadn't been cleaned in a while. Also how due to the movable nature of the maze she suspected that the half-Umbreon didn't expect them to leave. Richard took all of this in, rolled it around in his head, and delivered his verdict.

"If you say so."

Megan put on an oh-Mew-help-me expression and hit him.

"Hey, you didn't ask for an opinion," he protested. "Besides, shouldn't we be concentrating on finding this exit?"

As if on cue, a corridor dropped from the ceiling. Megan shrugged, and they both entered it before it ascended again.

Darrell paused, then added another tally mark to a number on the wall. It had now reached four. He'd passed through this t-junction four times now. The circles varied, but they still led him back to the same place, and he hadn't found Megan or any of the others. Sighing, he turned left.

Promptly, the corridor he was standing in moved, throwing him forwards. From his position on the floor, Darrell could hear gears grinding away somewhere below him. That was probably what moved the bits of maze about and confused the hell out of anyone who went in. He reached to the Pokeballs on his belt, trying to decide which Pokemon would best stop those.

What happened next confused him even more. The gears DID grind to a halt. The corridor sections that connected to the section he was in hadn't finished lining up, but luckily there was enough room to squeeze through. What he found on the other side both amazed and amused him at the same time.

David grinned at him sheepishly. "I think I broke it. Could you give me a hand?"

Darrell grabbed David's left wrist with both hands and pulled. The bucket refused to loosen its grip on either him or the wall.

"Pull harder," suggested the stuck one. Darrell did so. Still nothing. Viridian put her two cents in and tried blasting the bucket with a Psychic. Yet despite all of this, nothing would budge David's foot.

Darrell stood back and scratched his chin in thought. "Could try shocking you with Psycho."

Eyes widened. "Are you mad?!" yelled David. "I can't withstand him!"

"Sure you can!"

"The last time he was out nobody could go within three feet of him for fear of being shocked!"

"Aggravated by the presence of other electric Pokemon," Darrell said in defence, reaching for his belt.

"No!"

There was an uncomfortable silence.

"Oh look," he said dryly. "You're unstuck."

David looked at the bucket, which was still jammed between two sections of wall. Then he looked at his foot, which wasn't. "So I am."

Left alone to its own devices, the maze moving mechanism would happily confuse people for an infinite amount of time. However, the introduction of corridors that no matter how much effort was made would not move, along with the nature of said mechanism, forced everything to lock up.

Leading back the way he had came, Darrell added a fifth and final mark to the tally at the t-junction, and dropped to the ground to crawl through into a corridor that had stalled just below. David followed suit, landing somewhat more gracefully having worked out the distance to the floor.

With relief the passage ended in an open cavern, but that relief was dispelled when they looked off the rock bridge they were now on, saw what was at the bottom far below them, and nearly passed out.

"There should not," David said, putting all the emphasis on the 'not', "be any lava here."

Darrell remained silent, moving across the bridge without looking down.

"There is no possible way..." David started again.

"David," Darrell sighed, stopping. "There is lava here. Get over it."

"Regardless, it shouldn't be here. That's what I'm trying to say."

"Neither should a nuclear reactor or a maze that moves about. Oh, or Megan's friend either."

Looking down, it was David's turn to sigh. "Ok, I get it." Then something caught his eye. "What's that over there?"

Darrell leaned over to see what he was pointing at. Something odd about the shape of the wall. He shrugged.

"Let's go find out."

It turned out to be a tunnel leading away into the distance, the right-hand half being a stream of lava that poured into the pool below. The left-hand side, which was a solid path, was also blocked by a large gate, with no visible way to open it. David moved his hand over it.

"Dunno about you," he said, standing back, "but that sure looks like an exit to me."

Darrell hummed, kicked the gate, then turned to his friend.

"Well, we don't have any way to open it at the moment. Nor Richard or Megan. Or indeed any way to find them."

They turned around, and were greeted with another rock bridge that led directly into a decidedly concrete wall. Looking at each other, they both shrugged, and followed it. It was as good as they were going to get.

At the end of the relatively short corridor, there was a small box which looked like it could be an elevator. David leaned into it, looked to both sides, then looked back. "Only just enough room in here, I think."

Only one button appeared lit; it read 'Main Floor'. Once he and Darrell were in the elevator, he hit it.

The elevator was cramped and warm, and an unpleasant odour hung somewhere overhead. David pinched his nose and tried to fan it away, Darrell having to grin and bear it as his arms were forced down by their sides. Viridian sat nice and comfortable on the former's head. When the door opened, they surged out and ended up in a pile on the floor.

"Mind where you're putting your elbow," David muttered, trying to work out what his surroundings were now. "You could kill with that thing."

"You'd be more likely to die being swallowed by a Weedle," commented a female voice they knew all too well from somewhere above them, "than die from being speared on Darrell's elbows."

"So where are we, Megan?" Darrell asked, taking care to shove his elbow into David's ribs. Then he actually looked up.

Not too far away, Richard was standing. He was standing at the edge of a Pokemon Battle Field; this 'Main Floor' was somewhat shaped like a stadium but with no seats. At the far end of the room was the half-Umbreon again, who still didn't look happy to see them.

"He's waiting for us," Megan whispered to the two boys still on the floor. They clambered to their feet and joined Richard at the end of the Field. And when they did so, the person spoke.

"The path you choose," he said levelly, moving his gaze onto each of them in turn, "is one of extreme foolishness." It was the in control voice.

"Just the one for you, eh, Dave," Darrell whispered, nudging David, who glared at him.

"As you are probably aware, you are trapped in this room."

Clanking noises came from behind them as the elevator disappeared back out of sight. A large barrier descended over the far end of the room, which was assumedly the balcony they'd seen from the outside.

"I give you a maze to hold you, and you break it. So, it falls to me to stop you here."

"That maze," retaliated David, "was poorly designed, the mechanism that makes it move was too weak to even crush a bucket, and in any case it was falling apart. So I'm not surprised that we broke it."

Darrell rolled his eyes. "There he goes again with the detailed analysis."

"Hey, don't even get me started. If I actually bothered to look..." David threw his hand out at the hall. "...I'd be able to tell you how old this place is, and from what I can see already, I'm looking at something like ten years?"

"_So, what do you think?"_

"_In **sOMethiNg LiKE Ten yEArS**, maybe."_

As David and Darrell were now arguing again, and Megan had stepped in to break it up, Richard was the only one to notice the half-Umbreon frown, touch a paw to his head, then shake it off.

"You can do nothing to escape."

David, remembering the conversation he'd heard earlier, stepped forwards. "I guess then... we challenge you to a Pokemon battle."

"That's original," muttered Megan.

The half-Umbreon extended one hand. "You seek only to delay the inevitable. But I accept your challenge."

"And if we win..." David continued, eyes narrowed. "You let us go... and you let him go." He paused, trying to remember the name he'd heard. "Deal, Matthew?"

"_Ha, told you I'd win that one. Think we have time for one more?"_

"_I should think so. **DeAL, MAtt**."_

The name stunned everyone behind him, and for the first time, their opponent looked confused. "How could you possibly-" And then an almost imperceptible nod. "It was you."

David grinned. "I might've heard a bit. I know I heard enough."

"Enough of what?" asked Darrell, but his question was lost in the expanse.

Matthew composed himself, and held up two Pokeballs. "Two one-on-one battles that you cannot hope to win. Who will face me first?"

"I will," said David stepping forwards, while behind him Megan rolled her eyes. He was probably their best bet, despite him being himself. He raised a Pokeball. "Best one outta none?"

"Just win against him, moron."

Without a word, Matthew lifted his arm and released his first Pokemon, which turned out to be a Murkrow. It cackled madly for a moment before composing itself. Its eyes stared at David, as if to say 'Go on, I dare you'.

Like a gunman at a showdown, David wiggled his fingers at his side, deciding which of his Pokemon to use. And then he remembered a particular incident in Goldenrod, and grinned.

"Come on out, Holly!"

With a flash of light that flickered dangerously, David's Clefable materialised in the field, adopting a faux martial arts pose. He stared at the Murkrow, who shifted its gaze and stared back. This went on for a few moments.

"For Mew's sake, it's not a staring competition!" David yelled at him. Holly turned and ranted at him for a few seconds, then looked back just in time to dodge the Murkrow's beak.

Seize the moment. "Mega punch!"

Matthew was unmoved. "Dodge it."

In the second it took the mega punch to charge, the Murkrow was away, flying above. David wasn't phased, either; they were testing each other's strengths and weaknesses. That was how you started a battle, unless a side had an incredibly obvious advantage. Even then, rushing into a fight was very stupid.

"Drill peck."

Oh, boy. "Heads up, Holly!"

Holly jumped backwards to avoid the attack, skidding for a few inches. The Murkrow's beak went through the space in front of him and hit the ground.

"Mega punch again!"

This time, the Murkrow wasn't as fast; it managed to get away, but the punch clipped it, and it veered to the right before it could steady itself.

"Fly up high, and get ready for a dark pulse."

The Murkrow shot upwards, and now David had a hint of worry in his mind. If Matthew was planning a straight drop into a dark pulse, there was no way that could be avoided. There just wouldn't be enough time to get out of the way.

Unless...

"Krow!"

David grinned, thankful he'd remembered his travels around Johto and a battle outside Goldenrod in particular. "Holly! Anti-Reverse Counter Doubleslap!"

Richard raised an eyebrow. "What?"

"I have no idea," Megan said, sweatdropping. "I know he used the Triple Unpawed Mega Punch in the Johto league, but I've never even heard him talk about this one."

"...I'm not even going to ask about that one."

As the Murkrow plummeted towards the ground, Holly prepared his paws. If it worked well, David reasoned, it ought to give him a significant advantage.

Megan hid her eyes. "I can't look."

At the other end of the arena, Matthew cracked a grin. "You cannot avoid this."

"I can't avoid it," admitted David. "But I can do this!"

Holly jumped up, reaching the Murkrow just before it slammed on its brakes, and started on a doubleslap, one paw over each eye. With the Murkrow's sight distorted, it automatically slowed down, but by now Holly was on the top, slapping away, and the weight forced the Murkrow into the ground like a brick. The force of the collision caused the Murkrow's half-charged dark pulse to flare, throwing Holly off, but it wasn't nearly as devastating as it would have been at full power.

Richard was impressed. "That's actually quite effective."

The Murkrow, however, wasn't, and instead yelled what was assumedly profanities at Holly, who returned them. This continued for a few seconds, before David decided enough was enough.

"Holly, snap out of it! Flipped Mega Punch Twelve!"

Sitting down, Richard raised both eyebrows. "He has the strangest move naming conventions I've ever seen."

Darrell folded his arms. "I guess you didn't see 'Ian Visit Conquers The Kanto League' then."

All three of them flinched as the Murkrow slammed into the ground again. It stood up, coughed, yelled something at Holly, and collapsed. Holly walked over to inspect it, and satisfied that it wasn't going to hurt him anytime soon, pulled it to its feet.

"An effective battle strategy and good sportsmanship. How did he manage to lose in Johto?"

Megan grimaced. "His opponent was Darrow Stocksley."

Matthew reluctantly raised the Murkrow's Pokeball and returned it. David did the same to Holly, and took a step backwards. "That's one victory to m- us. And now, assuming you're going to bring out another one, it's Darrell's turn."

"Wait, what?" Darrell blinked. "Since when?"

"Since," explained David, giving him a look, "the last time you followed me to the Two Hills Battle Tournament and blamed me for having all the fun."

There was an uncomfortable pause.

"Just go already."

Stumbling forwards, Darrell tried to recall who he had with him besides Psycho. "Umm... Drapion, I think..."

David, now sitting next to Megan, shook his head and put his face in his palm, as Darrell called out his poison scorpion. It hissed at him, then turned to regard the Pokeball Matthew was now revealing. With the familiar buzz of a release, the air on the ground in front of him shimmered and some sort of cloud appeared.

Even in that formless state Darrell instantly recognised it. "A Spiritomb."

"He's in big trouble here," Richard muttered to the others. "Nothing's better than average against a Spiritomb, and most of a Drapion's potential move set is physical."

"David, do you know what its moveset is?"

David frowned. "He battled me yesterday, and it isn't good. Pin missile, acupressure, knock off, and leer."

All of a sudden, Richard, Darrell's Drapion, and Viridian flinched, and the cloud-of-Spiritomb intensified. Megan had to grab Richard to stop him from falling over.

"What was that about?" she asked, righting him, as David saw to Viridian and the Drapion shook it off.

"It..." Richard began, then shook his head. "It talked to us."

David looked over at the cloud. "That's talking?"

"Uhh... it says... it recognises an unfair fight... and that it's not willing to fight a battle to which its opponent has no chance of winning."

Darrell cupped his hands and yelled over to Matthew. "Looks like your Spiritomb doesn't want to battle!"

"...because otherwise it's not a battle, it's a steamroll."

There was a loud click as the Pokeball dropped from Matthew's belt, and the cloud instantly evaporated, the ball opening and then shutting of its own accord.

Blinking a few times, Darrell stepped back. "Ooookay."

"Are Spiritombs supposed to do that?" Megan asked slowly, staring at the spot where it had just been. Darrell's Drapion moved forwards and prodded the place gingerly. Behind the sunglasses, Matthew's eyes narrowed, as he kicked the ball clear.

"There," announced David loudly, stepping into the arena. "Two one-on-one battles. We won both times, technically. Now you let all of us go."

"Did you really, truly think..."

"Yes."

"...I made any promises?"

"You berk, David," Megan insulted him. Then she tilted her head. "What is he doing?"

"So it falls to me," Matthew said through gritted teeth, his hands grasping at something invisible, "to STOP YOU FROM INTERFERING!"

Without warning, he launched a Shadow Ball across the length of the arena. David, straight in its path, stood paralysed, and could only watch as certain doom headed towards him. Megan and Darrell could only watch in horror.

Richard, meanwhile, wasn't just about to let some stranger kill a friend of his friend in front of his eyes. With a yell, he tackled David to the ground, the Shadow Ball missing them by inches. Shoving David clear, he charged the other end of the pitch, and both the standing watchers flinched when he made contact.

It took a few seconds for him and Matthew to manage to untangle themselves from each other, and then they faced each other down on the pitch. The Umbreon frowned. "Who the 'breon are you?" he asked, spitting some fur out of his mouth. "You're not supposed to be here."

"Oh..." Richard said, not in the mood for sorting things out with words. "Really."

By now Megan had gotten over her fear and was removing David from the line of fire. They both ducked as Richard sailed over and hit the wall behind them, leaving an impact crater on the wall, and landing on his feet by the time he reached the ground.

"He's stronger than he looks," he commented to them, moving forwards again and sweeping the floor with a flamethrower. Nobody could see what Matthew did; but when Richard had finished he dropped down from the ceiling, a number of pipes coming down with him. Megan and David evacuated themselves to the corner of the room where Darrell was taking refuge.

"Who do you think's winning?" he asked them in hushed tones as they approached. Megan looked over, at the flying fire and shadow, and shrugged.

Richard was starting to lose his breath, and he was sure he'd done enough damage to knock his opponent out, but it seemed to have no effect. Matthew just kept up an unrelenting struggle. When the next blast of fire took his sunglasses halfway across the room, Richard had his first glimpse of his eyes... He yelled something back to the others.

"What?" Megan shouted back.

"He – has – no – pupils!" Richard yelled again, slower and clearer, just before the next shadow ball landed in his stomach. Winded, he staggered backwards. Fist raised, Matthew moved in to finish-

The fist stopped midway. Opening his eyes, Richard saw the face above him contort as if in pain... as if he was only just resisting making the punch. And then he made eye contact – with eyes that had proper-sized pupils – and took that as a sign to kick out, launching Matthew across the room.

"Look what I found," David said, holding something out. Both of his friends looked at him, then at the guitar he had in his hands.

"Where did you find that?"

He pointed behind him. "It was in that pile of rubble over there." There was indeed a pile of rubble a short distance away. "Wonder if it's still playable."

Darrell sighed. "I think we should be more concerned with-"

Matthew grabbed Richard by the tail and swung him into another spot on the wall.

"-Richard."

Grabbing the guitar off David, Megan gave it a few experimental strums, and winced. It was badly out of tune.

The fight in the middle of the floor was becoming annoying to Richard. He'd try his hardest and not be able to make a scratch, and then his opponent would go all weird and allow him to do damage.

Watching Megan twiddle the tuning handles on the guitar, David was impressed. "I didn't know you could play guitar."

"I can't. Not very well, anyway." She gave it another experimental strum. "Taught myself the main riff from that Fortress song with that awesome drum roll in the middle."

David looked away for a second, then back. "Fire and Ice?"

"_So you've written a new one?"_

"_Yup. It's called **FIRE & ice**."_

"Yup, that's the one."

Out on the battlefield, Matthew stopped again, and Richard took the opportunity to knock him down and smother him with another flamethrower. Darrell watched him do it, then watched as once more Matthew began his onslaught.

He sat down, ignoring Megan's attempts to tune the guitar. "What is with him? He keeps letting his guard down and then acting as if it never happened."

"If it helps," David said, looking up, "I heard him arguing with himself earlier, and it sounded like two different people."

After a final strum, Megan put the guitar down again and sighed. "I can't get it sounding right."

Richard was starting to tire. He'd punched, kicked, clawed, and even set the guy on fire and he wasn't even breaking a sweat.

"If you have any ideas," he yelled to the others, shielding himself from another shadow ball, "Now would be an excellent time to tell me!"

"Any ideas?" David asked.

"No."

"Richard," David answered, turning and cupping his hands, "we're at home but the lights aren't on! Just go with the fire!"

"_In the end, it doesn't matter. You'll have to accept it some time, that the only thing you can do is abandon all hope and **JU-JU-juuuUUSt gO wiTH theTHTHe FIIIIIIIREE**."_

Moments away from sending Richard into another crater, Matthew grabbed his head and screamed.

Blinking, David raised his eyebrows. "What did I do?"

"_The fi-fi-fire iiisisisis nnnot aaaalwayayays right..."_

"UMBREON!"

"_...Kyyyyyyyyllllle."_

"GET. OUT. OF. MY. HEAD!" Matthew howled.

Darrell's brain rewound, and he turned to look at David. "Arguing with himself?"

David's brain suddenly had the same recognition, and made eye contact. "Two different people?"

Standing up, Megan's voice cut above both of them. "Richard! Fire thrust him into the roof!"

The others stared at her. "...what?"

For a moment, nothing happened besides the screaming, as Richard worked out what she wanted him to do. Suddenly it clicked, and he knew what the only viable option was. Time seemed to slow, as he flipped himself upside down, and grabbed hold of Matthew's arms. There was a brief moment, which, to Richard, seemed to last an eternity, Matthew looking at him and making eye contact.

"Do it."

With a stream of fire, both Arcanine and Umbreon rocketed towards the ceiling.

"Sorry about this, buddy," Richard whispered, as the roof accelerated towards them. And suddenly he noticed something hanging free that wasn't before. Around the Umbreon's neck was a sort of pendant... with that Y symbol on it again. On instinct, he let go of Matthew's right arm, using the free paw to snatch the pendant away.

Then they hit the roof.

They watched as the two fell to the floor, and David turned to the others.

"Well, I'm glad that's over with," he said, grinning. "Now I'm going to pass out from the stress."

Megan held Darrell back as he reached to catch him.

_He was standing in a room. Nothing spectacular; just a room. Completely anonymous, if completely white meant the same as anonymous. There was someone there._

"_Who are you?"_

_The girl looked up at him. "I should be asking you the same question."_

"Ugh..."

"...I mean, the battery obviously isn't dead."

"Quit your complaining, he's coming round."

Opening his eyes, which now to Richard's relief had their pupils back once more, the first thing Matthew saw was Megan smiling at him.

"What..." he began, trying to sit up.

"Funny that," David muttered under his breath, Megan's Weavile holding an icebeam pack against a newly acquired bruise. "If I saw Megan smiling at me like that my first word would be 'Aaargh'."

"Weav," the Weavile muttered, rolling its eyes.

"I heard that."

Darrell walked back from the balcony. "I still don't understand why you didn't use that Hyper Potion on him," he commented.

Megan held up two fingers. "Two reasons. One, I had a first aid kit anyway, and two, my little sister squirted some in my mouth once. It tastes disgusting." Then she turned to her patient. "Are you feeling ok now, Matthew?"

"I... I think..."

"That's a good sign, thinking."

"Whoa, whoa..." Darrell spun his hand around. "Your sister squirted some in your _mouth_?"

"I was asleep at the time," explained Megan, attention undiverted.

"I personally think it's nice," added David, putting the battery back in his watch while Viridian looked on. Before anybody could ask him for an explanation, he did so anyway. "Middle of Kanto, lie down to get some shut-eye, along comes a Snorlax, and before he can get to the food, bam, falls asleep on top of equipment and discarded Potion bottle." He paused, trying to remember. "Tasted like pineapple."

Ignoring the looks everyone was giving him, he clicked the cover back on his watch, and still failed to get it working. "But enough about us. I'm interested to learn about our friend here."

Wincing, Matthew sat up, rubbing his head. "How much do you know already?"

"Well..." Megan began. "All we know at the moment is that your name is Matthew White and you play guitar. The one we found had your name on it."

"And that you're half-Umbreon, but we'll gloss over that," David stated, throwing a glance in Richard's direction.

"You've worked out for... ow... yourselves most of what I remember."

"Don't push yourself, Matthew, Richard gave you quite a beating."

Matthew looked at Richard. "Call me Matt. Um, sorry about that, I, er... that wasn't me you were fighting." Then, as an afterthought, "Where exactly am I?"

"The Waste Disposal Centre for the Hyrn Hill Experimental Reactor," quoted Megan, retrieving the icebeam pack from her Weavile. "Underground."

The confused look on Matt's face deepened. "Where's that?"

"We're in the Edo region, just to the west of Jade City."

"Forgive me, but I've never even heard of the Edo region, let alone Jade City."

Megan unclipped her Pokenav from her belt and held it up. "I'd show you, except my Pokenav hasn't got a signal."

Rolling his eyes, David snatched the device from her, and turned it on. "This thing does have offline, you know," he said, fingers moving over the buttons. "Just doesn't display your location." Triumphantly, he held up the Pokenav, which now had its holographic map display up. Matt peered at it, then looked down again with a confused look.

"Funny, I remember everything north of Kanto and Johto being water."

Megan did a doubletake. "Say what?"

"I remember living in the Orange Islands... and the Lake of Rage was about as far north as you could go without a boat or Pokemon assistance."

David turned the Pokenav around and looked at it. "Where's the time function on this thing?"

"Right at the bottom," Megan said, confused. "It should be-"

"It's not there."

He held the 'Nav up for them to see again. Sure enough, in the box at the bottom where the time was usually displayed, there was nothing. They pondered this for a few moments, before Darrell spoke up.

"Don't suppose you know of a way out of here?"

Matt stood up, a little unsteadily, and walked towards the back of the arena, away from the balcony. There he fumbled with a door they hadn't noticed before, and failing to open it, kicked it in. Inside there was some sort of control room, with TV monitors, a big red phone, and quite a lot of junk. As soon as he'd cleared the doorway, David made a a beeline for the phone, and lifted it off its cradle, only to discover that the cord had been neatly severed.

"You can try to escape, there is a shaft to the surface-"

"Where?" David interrupted.

"-but... there are others. They'll stop you."

The others moved back out the doorway as Matt started tossing some of the junk around. "I can't get you outside, but I can give you passage to the next key."

"A-" began Megan, but she thought better of it. Instead, she had a flashback of the lava they'd seen. At almost the same time, Darrell remembered the exit in the rock wall.

"There was an exit-"

"Is the next key in-"

They stopped when they realised they were talking at the same time, and both hesitated. This gave Matt the time he needed to find what he was looking for. He blew some dust off it and handed it to David, as he was the closest. It turned out to be a photo frame, with the protective glass smashed and most of the containing photo ripped apart, leaving one fragment left. With Matt in it.

Pointing at the empty space, "We are six. You got through to me, and there's one other who will help you if you can find her. The others..." Matt hesitated. "...the others will be much tougher to beat than I was."

"Can't count on them all having flashbacks, then?" Richard asked, walking across from the other side of the arena. "By the way, those footprints go down a vent into the maze."

Matt raised an eyebrow. "Footprints?"

Then, before anyone could explain, he clicked his fingers together. "There was something, I think it was a Sableye, went through here a couple days ago as... the force was setting up the maze. I noticed it, and... the force just ignored it."

"Sableye fits," David murmured to himself, well aware of the fact that nobody was listening. "Ghost type, doesn't like bright lights."

"Take the photo, and use that pendant you ripped off my neck to get through the gate. It's-"

"I saw it," nodded Darrell. "As I was trying to say earlier."

"And I was going to ask if the next key was in some sort of volcano," guessed Megan.

Grinning, Matt turned to stumble over to the consoles. "How did you guess?"

Megan's face turned serious. "It wasn't a guess."

He hit a button, and with a grinding noise the elevator reappeared. David stared at it with resentment, before suggesting that they go down one at a time, to avoid the problems he and Darrell had had earlier.

"What would you call the force that controlled you?" Megan asked, watching David squeeze in. "If I'm guessing right, it's controlling your other, uh, four?"

Matt turned around and looked up the arena. "If I had to describe it... I would call it darkness. Pure darkness. And I'm not talking about absence of light. It knows no light."

"Hey!" They both turned around, and Matt reacted just in time to catch the Pokeball Richard threw at him. "Yours, I believe."

He shrugged. "I don't know where they came from. They were just... here. And I have no idea why they did what I told them."

Richard pointed at the ball Matt held in his hands. "He didn't."

Uncomfortably, Darrell stepped into the elevator, and hit the button.

"There's nothing I could know or possibly say that would explain it."

Megan furrowed her brow, looked down and rubbed her fingers together. "You said it was darkness. Spiritomb is a ghost and dark type. Spiritomb resisted. You're a dark type. You resisted. I don't think this is a coincidence."

"It's so crazy it might be right." Richard said, moving in the general direction of the elevator.

She threw him a glance. "I usually am."

The elevator rattled back up, and he squeezed in, an even tighter fit than David and Darrell were combined. Just as the door was closing, Megan had a sudden thought. "Don't close your tail in the door!" Richard flashed her a thumbs up, just prior to screaming, pushing the door open again, and retrieving his tail. She couldn't help but giggle.

"There's something different about you."

She raised an eyebrow and turned. Matt was standing there, next to the door.

"I'm sorry?"

"It's funny, it's just... you don't seem like the others. You're something... more."

"Well, uh, thanks, I guess." She had a sudden thought, and continued her question. "Are the others... like you? In a body sense?"

"All of them. Well... all I can remember is that five of us are similar and the sixth is... different."

She pondered this as the elevator took her down to where the others were waiting on the rock bridge, Richard nursing his tail. She took the opportunity while walking past him to tap him on the head.

"Twit."

It took a short while for Darrell to figure out how to use the pendant to open the gate, but eventually he found a small depression in the metal, into which the pendant fit perfectly, but didn't do anything. He tried twisting it around, and was just about to give up when the pendant popped back into his hand and the gate rattled open.

They stood there for a moment, looking at the rocky path, and then as one they looked at the lava below.

"After you, gentlemen," Megan said, gesturing.

MWHITE HAS JOINED THE CONVERSATION

MWHITE WRITES:  
Wow, nobody here.

MWHITE WRITES:  
That's a first.

MANSION WRITES:  
Matt?

MANSION WRITES:  
Is that you?

MWHITE WRITES:  
It's me.

MANSION WRITES:  
They managed to free you. I'm impressed.

MWHITE WRITES:  
Heh. It was losing its grip on me anyway.

MWHITE WRITES:  
How did you get free?

MANSION WRITES:  
It never took me. It wasn't strong enough.

MANSION has changed name to NMARTIN

NMARTIN WRITES:  
And finally, an excuse to drop that stupid name.

MWHITE WRITES:  
The question is what'll happen when Kyle finds out.

REACTOR HAS RETURNED (Took a walk around the world)

MWHITE WRITES:  
And speak of the devil.

NMARTIN WRITES:  
Stunned for words?

NMARTIN WRITES:  
They set him free, Kyle.

NMARTIN WRITES:  
You brought them to him, and they set him free.

NMARTIN WRITES:  
Think about that.

NMARTIN WRITES:  
Can you remember the last time you were free?

REACTOR WRITES:  
Impossible.

MWHITE WRITES:  
Oh, it's entirely possible.

NMARTIN WRITES:  
And together, we can loosen your hold on the others.

NMARTIN WRITES:  
Your plans are ruined, Kyle. Because of you.

REACTOR WRITES:  
...

REACTOR WRITES:  
Plans change.

PUMPS HAS JOINED THE CONVERSATION (Run if you let it)

PUMPS WRITES:  
What's going on?

CONNECTION TERMINATED

REESTABLISHING CONNECTION...DONE

((nmartin)) damn!

((mwhite)) what's going on?

((nmartin)) he blocked us, and shoved us into the backup.

((nmartin)) i didn't think he was capable of doing that.

((mwhite)) there's something you should know about them.

((nmartin)) about who?

((mwhite)) glasses kid and the girl. something very interesting about them. can't place it.

((nmartin)) i know.

((nmartin)) at least it surprised him. it'll take a while for him to send the others after them.

((nmartin)) wait. they haven't escaped.

((mwhite)) um, yeah, about that.

((mwhite)) i kinda told them the others would stop them from leaving.

((nmartin)) oh, well done. Where did you send them?

((mwhite)) you're not going to like this.

* * *

POKEGEAR OPERATING NUMBER #444917  
REGISTERED USER: MEGAN HALL

Self-Entered Transcript  
Call from Harvey Wade, Thursday February 14th 2008 7:12 pm

Me: Hello?

Harvey: Hi Megan.

Me: Evening. How are you?

Harvey: Peachy. You?

Me: *laugh* Same as always.

Harvey: Hey, uh, listen. You doing anything at the weekend?

Me: Nothing planned. Why, got any suggestions?

Harvey: I've got something, at any rate. Tickets to the Malachite City Arts Festival.

Me: You're joking.

Harvey: Nono, this isn't a joke.

Me: But aren't those tickets-

Harvey: Invited artists get 3 free tickets for friends.

Me: You're not an artist, are you?

Harvey: Of course not. But we both know someone who is...

Me: Is it who I think it is?

Harvey: Probably.

Me: Kenzie got invited? That's amazing! I wouldn't have thought his art was anywhere near those standards!

Harvey: That's what he said when he got invited. So, interested?

Me: Duh. Who's the third ticket going on?

Harvey: Don't know. Zak's not interested, Rory wouldn't pick up his Pokegear, and Shane's going to be there anyway for JTVN. You know anyone?

Me: Not off-hand, but I'll have a look. And yeah, I'm coming. *laugh* I'll call Kenzie when I find someone, or not.

Harvey: *laugh* Glad about that. Seeya on Saturday.

Me: Seeya.

Call Ended

* * *

And there you have it. The chapter that took 30 months to write, rewrite and finish. During that time, the plans expanded; the total number of episodes for this story went from 7 to 11. To be honest, the reluctance of Matt's Spiritomb to fight is just an elaborate bodge job to avoid having to write an awkward battle scene. Please, if you spot any spelling or grammatical errors, do tell me, because my in-program spellcheck function sucks. Also please tell me if there are any errors that have been caused by the butchering of the document when it got uploaded.

Now, I'm -hoping- there won't be as much big a gap between this and the next chapter, which is, in any case,

episode two  
Chamber Protection


End file.
